At the wizened age of 27, I became a staff manager for the first
time. All Type-A bluster and bravado, I thought that simply
relaying my wishes would be enough to get stuff done. Au
contraire--I soon found that it takes much more than smarts and
expertise to manage. It requires great empathy, mucho compromise,
and a willingness to play traffic cop to discord in the ranks.

I asked entrepreneurs and experts what personality
characteristics a sales manager needs to run an entrepreneurial
sales force. Whether you're managing your sales staff yourself
or hiring someone to do it for you, these are the qualities
you'll need:

Clarity:

Clearly articulating expectations to
your sales team is essential. Frank Bell, 38, is founder and CEO of
Intellinet Corp., a provider of IT services in Atlanta. Bell names
vision and clarity as the top traits he needs to effectively lead
his sales force of seven. According to Bell, whose company made $10
million in sales in 2003 and projects $12.5 million for 2004,
"Clarity is essential for the sales team to understand which
clients are strategic and what types of deals we are best
positioned to deliver."

Consistency:

All employees, including sales reps,
operate best in an environment where they know what's expected
of them. Elements of consistency include a simple compensation
model, regular sales meetings and performance reviews, and
unwavering communication. For Eric Ansley, 34, president of Aaxis
Technologies Inc. in Washington, DC, consistency is the premier
characteristic he requires to manage the five-person sales team at
his $1.8 million business. "Creating a selling environment
where good selling practices occur every day is a key to
success," says Ansley, who strives to make exercises such as
team cold-calling sessions and sales meetings habits.

Urgency:

Grant Mazmanian is president of
Pinnacle Group International, a company in Media, Pennsylvania,
that provides behavioral assessments for small-company sales teams.
Mazmanian likens the urgent sales manager to Merlin, the magician
of Arthurian lore who could foresee the future because he lived his
life in reverse. Urgent sales managers are already at
"Z," working their way back to "A," and they
prioritize all that has to be accomplished to fulfill objectives,
such as quarterly sales goals. A manager with the urgency trait is
always five blocks ahead of his or her sales reps, waiting for them
to catch up.

Empathy:

This may well be the trickiest trait
to master. Empathy for your fellow human can make for stronger
relationships with reps--as long as it's tempered with
attention to bottom-line performance requirements. Show your reps
that you do care about their lives outside of the office, but
expect them to do their jobs.

An eye for good
talent:

Be urgent, be empathic--but if you
haven't hired the right reps, all your brilliant skills may be
for naught. Ansley cites hiring top-notch talent as his biggest
challenge. "In our early days," he says, "we were
eager to hire people just to get them out in the market." He
laments that rush to fill positions and says he should have been
more selective at the outset of his business.

Pinnacle Group International conducted a study in November 2003
to determine the management styles, motivators and temperaments of
successful sales managers in small companies (those with less than
$15 million in sales). According to the results, top sales managers
tended to have an entrepreneurial, hands-on management style. They
also relied on coaching and upgraded hiring standards to improve
the sales team, and used prospecting and cold-calling to increase
sales.